1/2/2017: Additional information and links have been added below the original story.

The Department of Homeland Security issued an executive summary yesterday of the U.S. government’s findings of Russian malicious cyber activity known as Grizzly Steppe.

According to the Department of Homeland Security: “Russia’s civilian and military intelligence services engaged in aggressive and sophisticated cyber-enabled operations targeting the U.S. government and its citizens. The U.S. Government refers to this activity as GRIZZLY STEPPE. These cyber operations included spearphishing campaigns targeting government organizations, critical infrastructure entities, think tanks, universities, political organizations, and corporations, and theft of information from these organizations. This stolen information was later publicly released by third parties.”

What does this mean?

SpearphishingAccording to Norton, the computer security software company, “Spear phishing is an email that appears to be from an individual or business that you know. But it isn't. It's from the same criminal hackers who want your credit card and bank account numbers, passwords, and the financial information on your PC.”

Spearphishing targets users specifically, creating the impression that there is a relationship between the victim and the sender. The email may tell the victim that their account has been compromised and that they need to supply passwords or account numbers in order to secure the account.

If you receive an email that looks like it may be from your bank or other financial institution, or from your email provider, and asks for private information: check with the company by calling the 800 number and ask if they would have sent you something so personal. (The answer will be no.) Alternatively, just delete the email immediately, and empty your deleted file. DO NOT click on any attachments or provide any personal information.

Why would the Russians use spearphishing? We will probably find out more information when the complete report is released. We do know that John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, received an email like this, was advised by staff that it was legitimate (the staff member now says he meant to say “illegitimate”), and he gave his email password away. This allowed the hackers to take over his computer and download files. (For more on this see the New York Times article from December 13, linked below.)

Who Were the Targets of the Russian Attacks?We know that two of the targets were the Democratic National Committee (see article linked above) and John Podesta. On December 30 it was revealed that a Vermont electrical utility had discovered the malicious computer code on a laptop computer owned by the utility. The utility reported that the malware did not affect their servers.

Homeland Security provide the code so information technology professionals can look for it on their own computer resources. Most likely there will be additional targets discovered in the next few weeks.

Homeland Security has provided a list of the servers that the hackers used. Many of these were used without the host’s knowledge. Russian Intelligence Services used (and may still be using) other people’s networks without their owners’ knowledge to hide their malicious activity. The computers at these IP addresses also host legitimate websites and other Internet services.

In addition to the three successful attacks described above, attacks were made on other networks:

Government organizations

Critical infrastructure entities (like the electrical utility)

Think tanks

Universities

Political organizations

Corporations

​What Information Did They Steal?The hackers stole briefing papers, “cheat sheets” (papers containing policy statements on a wide variety of topics, to help political candidates prepare for speaking appearances), emails, and any other documents contained on the victims’ networks.

How Was This Information Released?The hackers used a website called Guccifer 2.0 on Wordpress to release the Democratic National Committee documents. The Podesta emails were released through Wikileaks.

While none of the information contained in the document releases showed signs of illegal activity, they were embarrassing for the Clinton campaign. The timing of the releases corresponded to several important events. The DNC data was leaked the week before the Democratic National Convention, presumably to embarrass Clinton and possibly to keep delegates from supporting her. The Podesta emails were released one hour after the first public airing of an audio tape of Donald Trump on the set of the NBC television show “Access Hollywood” in 2005, in which he made aggressive sexual comments about women, including claims of assaulting women.

CNN breaking news today - "One official told CNN the administration has traced the hack to the specific keyboards -- which featured Cyrillic characters -- that were used to construct the malware code, adding that the equipment leaves 'digital fingerprints' and, in the case of the recent hacks, those prints point to the Russian government."

Neither of those statements is accurate. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the program, asked Fox to air a correction of their story. The USDA's most recent report on fraud in the program (recipients trading benefits to retailers for cash, usually at a reduced rate) states that the fraud rate for the years 2009 to 2011 is 1.3 percent, up from 1 percent from 2006 to 2008, but down from 4 percent in the 1990's.

The "Fox & Friends" story originally put a $70 million per year price tag on SNAP trafficking. The real figure is $853 million (for a more than $70 billion program, according to USDA data). The rise in fraud is likely due to the expansion of the program.

Huntsman led a panel discussion premised on the idea that food stamp fraud was higher than ever. The question for the panel was "is it time to end the program altogether?" This program provides healthy food for families. As of September 2016, 43.5 million persons were participating in SNAP, according to the USDA. Of those, 21.9 million are children. Participants receive an average benefit of $126.17 per month.

Although trafficking does not increase costs to the Federal Government, it is a diversion of program benefits from their intended purpose of helping low-income families access a nutritious diet. The USDA works aggressively to combat fraud in the program.

"Fox & Friends" did make an effort to correct their story. Neither the show nor the USDA are aware of where and how the incorrect number was arrived at.

Dec292016McCAIN & GRAHAM ON NEW SANCTIONS AGAINST RUSSIAWashington, D.C. ­– U.S. Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) released the following statement today on the Obama Administration’s announcement of new sanctions against Russia for its cyberattacks on the 2016 election:“The retaliatory measures announced by the Obama Administration today are long overdue. But ultimately, they are a small price for Russia to pay for its brazen attack on American democracy. We intend to lead the effort in the new Congress to impose stronger sanctions on Russia.”

According to Labor Secretary Tom Perez, the Trump transition team has broken the law by inquiring into the Energy Department and the State Department.According to Perez, “Those questions have no place in a transition. That is illegal.” Perez discussed the inquiries in an interview with CBS Radio News Friday. The inquiries appear to have violated the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978.In December Trump’s team asked the Energy Department for a list of employees who have worked on climate change issues in President Obama’s administration. The agency did not comply with the request. ​Last week, the Trump transition team requested reports from the State Department about “gender-related staffing, programming and funding.”Democratic senators have called for an investigation into the Trump transition letter to the Energy Department. They told the independent Office of Special Counsel that the letter seems to violate federal laws protecting civil service workers from partisan coercion.

An article in Business Insider from July 2016 alleges that Internet trolls paid by Russia posed as fake Conservatives on social media. Adrien Chen, who now writes for the New Yorker, discovered the trolls while researching a story for the New York Times in 2015.

"'I created this list of Russian trolls when I was researching. And I check on it once in a while, still. And a lot of them have turned into conservative accounts, like fake conservatives. I don't know what's going on, but they're all tweeting about Donald Trump and stuff,' he said."

Chen discovered in 2015 that Russian Internet trolls — paid by the Kremlin to spread false information on the Internet — have been behind a number of 'highly coordinated campaigns' to deceive the American public.

U.S. Intelligence agencies agree that Russian hackers have interfered in the U.S. presidential and Congressional elections, with an aim to push the election toward Donald Trump for president and Republican candidates for Congress in close races. Their report, requested by President Obama, will be released before Inauguration Day, January 20.

The Defense Minister of Pakistan, apparently responding to a story on a website containing false and inflammatory "news," sent a Tweet reminding Israel that Pakistan has nuclear weapons.

The website with the fake news, www.AWDNews.com, is described by www.MediaBiasFactCheck.com as "a mostly right wing conspiracy site with a preoccupation for world war."

According to the New York Times (see article below), the story, “Israeli Defense Minister: If Pakistan send ground troops to Syria on any pretext, we will destroy this country with a nuclear attack,” appeared December 20 on the website. (There are grammatical errors in the title, which is one clue to the suspect nature of the article.)

The Israeli Ministry of Defense responded to Mr. Asif on Twitter, explaining that the information about the Israeli threat was false.

The New York Times explains that the fake story about Israel attributed the quotes to a former minister.

The Israeli Defense Ministry responded on Twitter to say the report was fictitious.From the New York Times article:“'The statement attributed to fmr Def Min Yaalon re Pakistan was never said,' the ministry wrote in Twitter post directed at Mr. Asif. The Israeli ministry added in a second post: 'Reports referred to by the Pakistani Def Min are entirely false.'”The New York Times article can be found here.http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/24/world/asia/pakistan-israel-khawaja-asif-fake-news-nuclear.html

The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, DC. Their mission is to “conduct in-depth research that leads to new ideas for solving problems facing society at the local, national and global level.” The Brookings Institution has been in existence for 100 years. More than 300 leading experts in government and academia from all over the world provide high quality research, policy recommendations, and analysis on a range of public policy issues.This paper, titled “The Emoluments Clause: Its Text, Meaning, and Application to Donald J. Trump,” was written by:

Norman L. Eisen, fellow at the Brooking Institution, was chief White House ethics lawyer from 2009 to 2011 and ambassador to the Czech Republic from 2011 to 2014. He is chair of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

Richard W. Painter, professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, was chief White House ethics lawyer from 2005 to 2007. He is vice chariman of CREW.

Laurence H. Tribe, is Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard University.

​The authors express concern about the unique ethical challenges a Trump presidency: “Never in American history has a president-elect presented more conflict of interest questions and foreign entanglements than Donald Trump." They assert that in our present national situation, “when there is overwhelming evidence that a foreign power has indeed meddled in our political system, adherence to the strict prohibition on foreign government presents and emoluments ‘of any kind whatever’ is even more important for our national security and independence.”The link to the Brookings paper is here:https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/gs_121616_emoluments-clause1.pdf​The link to the Brookings Institution website is here:https://www.brookings.edu/topic/u-s-politics-government/

There has been much discussion in the U.S. news about Vladimir Putin, president of the Russian Federation, and close associate of President-Elect Trump's selection for Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson. The link below to the website for the television show "Biography" from Arts & Entertainment Network gives the basic details of his sudden rise to political prominence in Russia, during waning years of the adminitration of Boris Yeltsin.Putin had previously risen to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the KGB.

The KGB(Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti) was the Soviet Union's security committee, and was the world’s largest spy and state-security machine, involved in all aspects of life of ordinary people in the Soviet Union.

According to the article (linked below) by the Cold War Museum in Warrenton, Virginia, "The KGB was a secretive and secluded organization, and it has been said that, 'Its doors are shut tightly to the public.'”

After the Soviet Union was dissolved, the KGB was "dismembered into separate agencies" (from the Guardian article, linked below). The FSB is the agency that now "is much more than just an ordinary security service ... Combining the functions of an elite police force with those of a spy agency, and wielding immense power." (Also from the Guardian article)